198 Buddha and Bodhisattva—A Hindu View

on 5th November, 1899, at Ridgely, U.S.A. — a fact not so
widely known.63

Sister Nivedita used to keep an image of the Buddha in her
study-room, and towards the end of her life started worship-
ping an image of Prajna-paramitd Buddha.64 Few days before
her death at Darjeeling (October 1911), she had printed and
distributed the Buddha's famous exhortation : 'In the East and
in the West, in the North, and in the South, let all beings mo\ e
forward freely, each in his own path, without enemies, without,
obstacles, overcoming sorrow and attaining cheerfulness.*65

Swami Shivananda (1856-1934), one of the direct disciples*
of Ramakrishna and the second President of Ramakrishna
Mission (1922-1934), was an ardent follower of Swami
Vivekananda. Like Swamiji and the Buddha, he was in the
early stage of his spiritual career, against worshipping God in
any anthropomorphic sense (i.e., with form or body). He accep-
ted God with a form, only in a later stage.66 Swami Shivananda.
preferred the Buddhist type of meditation or dhydna, whichu
Swamiji also followed, "in making the mind btill and mere wit-
ness in the cosmic void, sunya or vyoma9. He unconsciously?

63. Vide ref. 58, pp. 315-317; Letters of Sister Nivedita, Vol. 1, p. 233:
"Swamiji gave two pieces of cotton cloth—gerua colour—to Mrs.
Ole Bull and to me. He called her a Sannya ini and putting one
hand on her head and one on mine, he said, 'I give you all that
Ramakrishna Paramahansa gave to me. What came to us from
a Woman (Goddess Kali), I give to you two women.* ** Later the
Holy Mother told Sister Nivedita that she had a vision of the-
Sister in gerua (ochre) robe. Letter dt. Sept. 8, 1904, Vol. 2,.
p. 677.

64. Bhagini Nivedita (in Bengali) by Pravrajika Muktiprana, 2nd Edi-
tion* 1963, Calcutta, p. 467.

65. Ibid., pp. 474-475.

66. 'Mahapurush Shivananda' by Swami Ajnirvananda, TJdbodhan,.
2nd Edition, 1356 B.S., p. 57; 'Shivananda Vani* by Swami
Apurvanaada, Vol. 1, Udbodhaii, 5th Edition, 1386 B.S., pp. 170-